AUSTIN, TX, USA – While the headline of this story might seem a little odd, we are actually in a slightly unusual place right now. Looking back over the years, the adult entertainment industry has been responsible for driving many major technology innovations which we now take for granted. With the exception, that is, of social media. 

Nearly one billion people on Facebook and 30 million users on Twitter talk every day not because of any corporate agenda, but because people simply want to connect with each other.

The rise of social networking was discussed Monday in an interesting panel featuring Jeremiah Oywang of Altimeter Group, Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer, Katie Paine of KDPaine and Partners and Dave Evans of Social Dynamix.

The panel discussed brands using social networking to connect with consumers and how being authentic online is the key for company’s employees to be free to work directly with consumers. This is the model at work in Nokia Care US, which is based in Dallas, Texas. The Nokia Care US team, which consists of seven individuals, works with consumers on a daily basis to solve their issues ranging from phone problems and software issues.

Driving the point home was Dave Evans of Social Dynamix when he said,

“What’s awesome about brands on Facebook is when it’s a human interacting on the other end – you can’t tell it’s a brand.”

Empowering our people to converse directly with the public is a practice we’ve always employed on Conversations (it’s in the name, see?) and which continues today. Take for example Damien Dinning, Nokia’s Head of Imaging Experience for Nokia Smart Devices. Damien regularly posts on Nokia Conversations on imaging-related announcements and developments and is also active on Twitter.

Damien has a huge fan base and his posts always get a lot of attention from users, sparking some brilliant discussion around imaging and giving Damien valuable insight into what real people think. Those same people also get to have a direct influence on how products are developed. 

Also, on Conversations, our authors are profiled with their own byline and we’re given levity as writers to express our voice and perspective. You’ll often find us active in comments, answering questions and pushing the conversations further. 

Would you agree with panelist Dave Evans above? What good examples can you think of with interacting with brands on social media? Does it make a big difference to you if you’re talking to people or a brand? 

Photo credit: andrew and hobbes